Evaluation of Directive 2009/43/EC on the transfers of defence-related products within the Community : final report

The focus of the evaluation is the Transfers Directive and its implementation over the period since its application in 2012, covering all key provisions of the Directive, as well as all categories of products within its scope. All EU Member States and EEA countries were covered by the study, and the differences between these countries and their respective defence sectors taken into account. The study evaluated the relevance, effectiveness, coherence and consistency, efficiency and European added value of the Directive. More specifically, it was to address both quantitative and qualitative aspects, and provide answers to a series of questions relating to each of these key evaluation criteria. Our report begins with a description of the Directive and its principal objectives, before going on to present an overview of Europe's defence industries and trends in cross-border trade. These background sections are followed by the evaluation findings, which are organised in a series of chapters, with one chapter for each of the broad evaluation criteria specified above (e.g. effectiveness). Each chapter begins with an overview of the key messages and ends with a short conclusion on each of the specific evaluation questions. The report re-uses these synthetic elements in a final chapter presenting our overall conclusions along with a small number of suggestions for future action. The main report is accompanied by a series of rather fuller appendices, presenting for example, the selected case studies prepared as part of the research and also listing the main contributors.